UNION — Scores of interested residents attended a presentation on Province Lake watershed, held in the Greater Wakefield Resource Center in Union, on a mid-January Saturday morning.

The PowerPoint presentation was given by Forrest Bell and Jennifer Jespersen of FB Environmental, with input from Dr. Jim Haney of UNH; the theme was water quality, and the word most bandied about was “phosphorus.”

Province Lake Association President John Samuelson started with an introduction which included a brief account of the organization’s work, such as milfoil monitoring, and their productive association with Acton-Wakefield Watersheds Alliance, which led to the proposal for a watershed plan for their lake.

Province Lake, which is shared by Wakefield, Effingham and Parsonfield, Maine, has a watershed area that covers only 7.3 square miles. This is small in comparison to the lake surface area of 967 acres. The lake is shallow, with an average depth of nine feet, and the flushing rate is a mere 1.1 times per year.

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Jennifer Jespersen of FB Environmental. (John Nolan/Times photo)

Currently, the amount of phosphorus in the lake is 14.3 parts per billion, said Bell, which is enough to classify the water body as “impaired” according to New Hampshire state standards.

Forty five or 50 years ago, said Jesperson, records show that phosphorous concentrations were many times higher, but with the elimination of pipes discharging waste into the lake, the phosphorus culprits now are nonpoint sources, such as aging septic tanks, and runoff from residential developments, roads and driveways.

The golf course bordering one section of the lake, it was pointed out, has been using non-phosphorous fertilizer for the past 12 years.

There is sufficient phosphorus — the main pollutant of concern — in the lake, at certain times of the year, to create algae blooms, which can be toxic and pose a human health hazard. Such an impacted lake can lead to the property values of surrounding homes being reduced by 20 percent.

Bell related the time-frame for the watershed management plan, the aim of which is to reduce the amount of phosphorus seeping into Province Lake, even as development continues in the coming years.

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Over 60 people attended a Province Lake Action Plan meeting in Union, on a recent Saturday. They listened to a presentation and then broke into working groups to suggest actions which will be incorporated into the final plan. (John Nolan/Times photo)

Work on the plan began with stream monitoring last spring, incorporated a septic survey this past August and included a sediment survey in the fall.

“We are close to writing a report and action plan. It should be completed by the summer of 2014,” said Bell.

Jespersen said that algae blooms had broken out on the lake in the fall of 2010 and again in 2012, while the spring of 2013 witnessed yet another bloom episode.

“If they are above the threshold, the state will close the lake. A warning was issued in July (2013),” she said.

Haney said that if there is a bloom “there is a clear and present danger,” explaining that they produce toxins that can affect the human liver.

Last year his UNH students, as part of the study, took core samples of the lake’s sediment in order to reveal the lake’s history.

“We went back 30 years, but I’d like to go back 100 years,” he said.

In a deep lake, about 80 percent of the phosphorus leaching into the water body, sinks to the bottom, and plays no great part in feeding algae. However, the sediment in a shallow lake such as Province Lake, gets disturbed by boat traffic and even a strong wind. Thus phosphorous that has sunk into the sediment is reintroduced into the water body.

The crowd, numbering over 60 people, then split up into groups to discuss various aspects of ordinances, practices and actions that could impact the lake. The topics included shoreline residential development, roads, water quality monitoring, municipal ordinances and land conservation, boating and recreation, and septic systems.

Suggestions from these groups will be incorporated into a final action plan for Province Lake.

“I was very pleased with the outcome of the meeting as we had representatives from municipal boards and shorefront landowners who all did an excellent job of relaying their concerns and committing to working towards restoring the lake’s water quality,” said Linda Schier, executive director of Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance.

She summarized the key points raised in the groups as follows:

— that there needs to a focus on restoring buffers and minimizing erosion to residential properties

— sediments from poorly designed roads need to be controlled, particularly Route 153

— towns need to strengthen their ordinances about stormwater management on new developments and redevelopment and land conservation is a major priority as so much of the upland is now undeveloped and unprotected

— a lot of education is needed about boating responsibly to limit the amount of churned up sediments in the lake which re-suspend phosphorus and make it available to cyanobacteria

— careful monitoring of the water is critical to being able to assess the status of the lake and whether the efforts to reduce pollution are having an effect.

“It was heartwarming to see the interest and commitment on such a cold snowy day. Some people traveled from as far away as Connecticut to be involved,” said Schier.